Australian Government allocates 500,000 USD to Explore Blockchain Applications

Digital Transformation Agency of Australia gets the go to investigate getting government services on the blockchain

The Digital Transformation Agency of Australia gets the green light to investigate getting government services on the blockchain with a budget allocation of 700,000 AUD (approx. 521,000 USD) by the Australian government.

According to the officials, these funds will be extracted from the current Agency resources and spread across the upcoming four years. This will be allocated from the 2018-2019 national budget of Australia.

The Australian government also made a budget allocation of 9 million AUD to fund the cyber-security operations centre associated with the parliamentary computing network. The budget allocation will be spread as 2.6 million AUD in 2018-19, 2 million AUD in 2019-20, 2 million AUD in 2020-21, and 2.1 million AUD in 2021-22. The remaining 300,000 AUD will be related capital for 2018-19. According to the Budget papers, the centre will “enhance cyber security protection for the parliamentary computing network”.

As a leader of information and communication technology (ICT) solution provider for the nation since its inauguration in 2015, the Digital Transformation Agency supports various departments connected to the government “undergo digital transformation”.

The 2018-2019 budget document by the Australian government mentions that, “the Government will provide 0.7 million AUD in 2018-2019 for the Digital Transformation Agency to investigate areas where blockchain technology could offer the most value for Government services”. Also, the document further mentions that the agency will work towards “enhancing cyber security protection for the parliamentary computing network”.

Similar actions in the past by the Australian government

There are initiatives taken in the past by the Australian government allocating resources to investigate on blockchain solutions. There were two reports issued in 2017 by Australia’s leading research agency on practical use cases and risks related to blockchain technology.

Earlier, the government of Australia also published a plot related to an ambitious new Digital Economy initiative. The initiative was cited in an consultation paper with the previous research done by the country related to blockchain and its future potential as a Digital Economy initiative solution.

Furthermore, the government revealed their plans in the latter part of 2017, for the provision of over 8 million AUD (approx. 5.9 million USD) worth of grants to a pilot project connected to smart utilities running on the blockchain platform.